Verona Area School District Board of Education Meeting May 4, 2026

001All right, good evening everyone. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Thank you so much. It's so lovely to have a full house. What we look forward to this meeting every year. So great to see you all. Um we'll do some business first. We'll establish that we have a quorum. Please beginning with a roll call vote. Mont Carlos >> here. >> Joe >> here. >> John >> here. >> Meredith >> here. >> Christopher >> here. >> Corby >> M3 another outside organization help with transition. >> Repres meeting been properly noticed. >> Just give us a thumbs up. >> Yes, it has. >> Thank you. To help ensure that we're centering our board work around our shared values and serving our students, we begin each of our board meetings by reading our

002district's equity framework and the Ho Chunk land acknowledgement, which can be found at the top of the agenda. Uh John, would you please read for us this evening? >> Certainly. In the Verona Area School District, our mission is that each student will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their personal goals, thrive in a diverse global society, and lead a healthy, self-fulfilling life. To meet this mission, the Verona Area School District will ensure that every individual has access to the educational, social, and emotional support they need to feel valued and affirmed in their unique identities and experiences. We acknowledge that inequities and power dynamics exist in our system such that some individuals on the basis of their identities face barriers to accessing the opportunities they need to experience success. In acknowledgement of such, the

003Verona Area School District is committed to disrupting these systems of inequity. All right. And our land acknowledgement is there are currently 12 tribal nations who call Wisconsin home with the Ho Chunk Nation being the primary group living around Madison. No matter where you are in the state, you are on the ancestral land of a tribal nation. As we begin our meeting, we honor the land upon which we stand. >> Thank you. Uh board members, calling your attention to the remainder of tonight's agenda. Uh if there are no changes or amendments, I'd accept a motion to approve the agenda as printed. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Christopher. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Juan. Carlos. Although those All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda signify with I. >> I. >>

004Any opposed? Thanks, Corby. The agenda has been approved. So, we get to start with student recognition, which is I mean, I know you're here for lots of reasons, but I'm guessing this may be one of them. And we are so excited to celebrate our distinguished artists, families, and educators in the room tonight. Um, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Clarity, to get us started. >> Absolutely. >> Good afternoon, everyone. >> Always a call in response tonight. Like, thank everyone for being here today. Uh we are extremely excited when we say that this is uh our favorite board meeting of the year. We we truly mean it. Uh when able to celebrate the talent of so many uh young artists and so many students in in our space. um the family support that is received

005that we see here with with a full house and our dynamic staff that go above and beyond every single day to make sure that our scholars are supported, cared for, and are able to bring artistic skills to life. So, we want to just pause for a second and say thank you to so many people that bring this event to life. And as we get ready to celebrate um all of our scholars, it just not only the uh visuals that you'll see, but the heart that went into every uh piece that that you'll see today is what really makes this so so powerful for us. So before we get to the uh art winners, I'm very proud to celebrate uh one of our scholars that I I think I see in every event throughout the year,

006and that's uh that's that's Dominic. I just got a chance to hear his amazing voice at the jazz concert this this last Saturday and uh today he's being recognized uh for his uh contributions to FCCLA. So the Vernon High School student Dominic Jacobson is a member of the family career and community leaders of America and has been selected as one of 15 semi-finalists nationwide in running for FCCLA member of the year. Dominic is being recognized for outstanding leadership, academic excellence, and a strong commitment to service. He founded the FCCLA chapter of Ronary High School, established officer roles, and supported more than 20 members in leadership development and preparing for competitive events. In addition to chapter leadership, he has served Wisconsin FCCLA as vice president of competitive events, developing statewide resources that expanded access to events

007and help new members grow in confidence. Jacobson's record of excellence includes national recognition in culinary math and food science, leadership in community service, and academic honors. In addition, Dominic was recently selected as a Coca-Cola scholar by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. National recognition includes a $20,000 college scholarship to supports uh Dominic's continued academic journey as a member of the 38th class. So, we want to send a true celebration to this dynamic scholar and someone that will be crossing our stage here really pretty soon. Uh congratulations to Dominique Jacobson. Is that a smile like I like when I say graduation like I I'm out of here or >> a little bit? >> Congratulations. Thank you for being here so we can recognize um just such an incredible accolade and do keep us posted what continues to happen

008on the FCCLA journey. >> We'll do. >> All right. Next, it is our honor to begin the ceremony for the Broner School District Distinguished Art Scholars. As I said, I definitely want to take a time to recognize each of the pieces of work. just for the logistics that will take place. Uh one of our amazing board members will read uh a description written by u each of the staff members and I'll read uh the last three myself. uh as you're uh hearing us read your accolades, please show your art and then if you could after the thunderous round of applause, if you could move uh to my left and you'll we receive your certificate and a great medal that is we hear is just as great as an Olympic medal. So we're going to keep

009you keep keep celebrating your your talents. So, our first winner today will be Alexa Miller. >> And I get to read um So, Alexa Miller is a third grader at Glacier Edge Elementary. As Miss Finer began thinking about all of the deserving students at Glacier Edge Elementary, Alexa instantly came to mind to be honored with this exceptional award. Alexa is the embodiment of one who intrinsically exudes exceptional character qualities. She is eager to learn, attentive, highly respectful of others, responsible, and very mature. Her response to situations is a reasoned, thoughtful, and logical approach. Yet, she has a great sense of humor and sees the fun and joy in situations, coveted and rare qualities in one individual. Then there is her advanced art skill, attention to detail, high quality craftsmanship, a willingness to experiment with all

010media and styles, and helpful to fellow artists. It doesn't get much better than that. Mrs. Spiner feels very fortunate to be your art instructor. Our next winner is Lillian Ael and our instructor Sarah Gosski. >> And I get to read about Lillian as well. So, Lillian Ael is a an eighth grader at Badger Ridge Middle School. Lily has made quite an impression on both of her middle school art teachers. It has been a pleasure working with her over the years. Lily first stood out in sixth grade when she drew a succulent plant out of chalk. Her attention to detail and ability to blend and see color were outstanding for her age. Her work consistently demonstrates strong composition, attention to detail, and a willingness to take creative risks. More importantly, Lily is a patient, thoughtful, and

011kind student. Throughout seventh grade art, she continued to excel in her artmaking practices. This year in eighth grade, she has demonstrated not only her passion for art, but also her drive. Over the course of middle school, Lily has grown not only in technical skill, but also in confidence, developing a unique style that reflects both imagination and thoughtful intention. She approaches each project with focus and enthusiasm. Her dedication to her craft has made her a standout artist and a joy to teach. Mrs. Gratzky is excited for her future and we wish her the best of luck in high school and beyond. >> Thank you. Our next winner is Sika. Yes. So, Sama Podell is a fifth grader at Cornow Charter School. Pretend I am Tina speaking with you. I've had the pleasure of teaching Sama since

012kindergarten. I first taught her in at Center Prairie Elementary and later had the opportunity to work with her when when she transferred to Cornell Charter School. Sama is a kind and passionate student. She is always eager to learn new art techniques and always comes to class with a positive attitude. I'm proud of Sama and her artwork in our class and her other studies. Congratulations. Our next winner is Nora. And for Norah Bunton is a third grader at Stern Prairie Elementary and her teacher, her art instructor is Lonely Woman. Nora is such a positive light in the art room. Always uplifting, uplifting and encouraging those around her. She works thoughtfully and pays close attention to detail, consistently putting forth her full effort in every project. Nora demonstrates creativity and flexibility by exploring new ideas when challenges

013arise. It is evident when looking at Norah's art that she takes pride in her work and completes her ideas with quality craftsmanship. It has been a joy to teach Nora again this year and I look forward to seeing her continued growth and artistic skills and creativity. Congratulations, Nora. And our next winner is Elena Collins. All right, here we go. So, I get to read about Elena. Elena is truly a leader in art class, often by modeling in a quiet way. She embodies the Wildcat way, expectations of being safe, being compassionate, and being a learner. Ella consistently demonstrates a willingness to learn and try new things. She often shows creative solutions when completing her artwork. Her work is done thoughtfully with focus and care. It is a pleasure to recognize Elena for this award. Next we

014have Ella Clark. >> I get the privilege of reading about Ella and on behalf of her art teacher Kaen Parker. Ella is a fixture in the ceramics room at Verona Area High School. She has taken six ceramics courses while in high school, including three during her senior year. Even on the days she doesn't have a ceramics class, she often stops into the studio to check on her artwork and to find small pockets of time to refine and build her skills. Her quiet tenacity, observant eye, and positive spirit make her an outstanding artist and an asset to our studio community. One of the things I've always been impressed by is Ella's ability to take setbacks and challenges as an opportunity to learn and grow. Ceramics is a challenging material and there are never any guarantees that

015your work will turn out as you expect. That is part of the excitement and frustration of working with clay. Ella always creates her work with a vision in mind and meticulous detail, but she's also able to appreciate the inherent unpredictability and happy accidents that sometimes come out of the kiln. At her core, Ella Clark is a maker. She's a person that values quality craftsmanship and handmade artwork in a variety of forms. and I know she will always be making something new no matter where life takes her. I, Miss Parker, am so lucky to have witnessed her growth as an artist and a person over the last four years, and I'm going to miss seeing her little clay cats around the studio. Congratulations. Our next winner representing Span Oaks is Jacob. I have the pleasure about

016reading reading a little bit about Jacob Mitchell. >> Jacob Mitchell is an eighth grader at Savannah Oaks Middle School. Jacob Mitchell truly loves creating in all forms. He's been in every art class offered at Savannah Oaks and his dedication to his craft is unmatched. When he comes to art class, he simply can't wait to get started. Not only does Jacob love creating, but every material he touches turns into artistic goals. Jacob's attention to detail is impeccable. He uses his imagination and takes risks. His peers are simply amazed at his level of sophistication. It's been such a joy to be Jacob's teacher and watch his incredible creativity come to life. I wish him the best in high school and beyond. I know he will continue to shine and achieve greatness. Next from Sugar Creek Elementary. Yuriel.

017>> My gosh. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> UDS is a kindergarter at Sugar Creek Elementary. It is an honor to select UDS as this year's student art representative for Sugar Creek Elementary School. Throughout the school year, I've watched Udette grow and uses creative imagination to solve art challenges in class. He has become an artist who displays growth with each new skill and uses his heartfelt dedication to learning as an example to others. Udette uses his bright personality and infectious smile to encourage others by asking engaging questions and finding personal connections to their artwork. I encourage everyone who is not already so to take time to talk to you about his artwork. I guarantee you you will be impressed with the insights of one of our youngest students as he makes the world come alive

018with beautiful observations and insights. Next representing uh BIS, uh we have Karina. >> Karina Young is a second grader at Verona Area International School. Karina is a kind and joyful artist. There is no job too big for her to tackle. Karina creates meticulously far beyond her grade limit. She pays close attention to details within her work and strives to show a sense of craftsmanship. She asks for constructive feedback and applies it throughout thoughtfully to her work. On top of requesting feedback, she helps provide kind and constructive feedback to peers to help them elevate their ideas. Arena shows just as much joy for being creative with friends as she does creating on her own. Do do let her don't let her quiet demeanor fool you, however. She can be quite silly in the best of ways

019and loves to talk about her process. It will be exciting to see what and how she creates in the future. Next for Bron Area High School, we have Ryan. And this comes from Ryan's art teacher, Carrie Ponzel. Ryan Drake Dante is a 12th grader at Verona Area High School. Drake stands out as one of the most dedicated students to walk the halls of VAHS. It it is difficult to picture him without his portfolio in hand. A constant and visible testament to the countless hours he devotes to his craft beyond the classroom. His commitment to growth is equally remarkable. Drake actively seeks out feedback, asks thoughtful and inquisitive questions, and consistently challenges him himself to improve. This level of curiosity and perseverance is not only admirable, but indicative of a true artist's mindset. Over the past

020four years, Drake's artistic abilities have evolved in impressive and meaningful ways. He has developed both technical skill and a strong personal voice, demonstrating creativity, discipline, and a willingness to take risks in his work. Beyond his accomplishments as an artist, Drake has also grown into a thoughtful, motivated, and resilient young adult. It has been a genuine privilege to witness his journey, and I have no doubt that his passion, work ethic, and dedication will continue to guide him toward future success. This year we also have the honor of doing recognizing a outstanding group project uh from seniors at Broner High School. So I'm going to speak in the voice of their art instructors as we uh recognize Zayn Carter. Not truly their voice. Zay Carter, Zade Travels, Colton Javala, and Will Sharon Brock. This year, I've selected

021a group of four film students who have truly demonstrated what is possible for a high school art student. I've had the privilege of knowing these four gentlemen for the past three years, and I've had a front row seat to their creative development. Working as a co working as a cohesive group, I witnessed these students problem solve, develop ideas, disagree respectfully, and collaborate in a way that is not often seen among high school students. I truly believe these four students have have helped shape and grow our video production program within Broner High School art department. They have made my job more meaningful and more fun, and they have made coming to work on the hard days much better. They inspire younger filmmakers to pursue movie making. They've also created a YouTube channel that has reached um

022monetization with 196 videos and almost 4,000 subscribers. And they have worked together to produce a schoolwide schoolwide videos that highlight community and belonging. Congratulations. Hey, I haven't heard from you in a little while. Hope you're having fun with your friends. Call me when you get a second. Love you. Bye. Message to Teens is brought to you by the Wisconsin. >> You have more. >> Yeah. I got a more winning video to give more. So beginning with Zayn, Zayn can often be seen as the brains behind the operation. A natural director, Zayn has special ability to envision the final outcome of of a project before it has even been created. This allows him to guide others with clarity and attention, showing a level of commitment that elevates the entire group. Even the simplest ideas are met

023with care and thoughtful consideration. I enjoy challenging his ideas and helping him refine the smallest details in his work. I would also be remiss not to mention his dedication to editing. In many ways, Zane surpasses my own knowledge of video editing and I will truly miss learning from him. Zade not only acts in a variety of roles but also brings incredible music production talent to their films. He seamlessly blends visual storytelling with original music, bringing their projects to life in a powerful way. Zay brings humor and flexibility to the group and is always willing to step into whatever role is needed. Colton has a strong ear for music, but I believe his true talent shines on set. I've seen Colton perform in numerous genres from comedy to thriller to horror and even in romantic comedy

024that had that had the entire class laughing. Check that out. His warmth allows him to work with just about anyone and his openness creates space for others to feel comfortable expressing themselves as well. Congratulations to Colton. Will is deeply committed to excellence in every aspect of the filmmaking process. I have seen him excel as a lead actor in many of their projects while also growing significantly in the areas of editing and cinematography. His perfectionism often becomes a strength as he is willing to revisit scenes and retake shots until the message is clear and the visuals are just right. Will is extremely hardworking, kind, and helpful without ever being asked. I have enjoyed watching him collaborate so well with his peers both within the video production and beyond it. Congratulations to this amazing group. Metal in

025that one. It's not quite that, right? >> If you ever wonder what a graduation ceremony takes to be all All right. All right. Our final winner today is Josh Reyes representing New Century School. That'll be read by Mr. Poco. Thank you. I get to read about Josh. When Miss Laxton first met Josh, he was in second grade. He did not seem to have an interest in art, but he loved when she would sit with him during work time. At first, he wanted to make he wanted her to make his projects. Miss Laxton believes this was because he did not realize at the time how creative he actually was. He eventually learned that Miss Laxton does not create the work for her artists. And with every class, Josh began to build up a confidence in himself.

026He began to take his creative ideas more seriously. In fourth grade, it was difficult to get him to stop drawing at cleanup time. This is a welcome challenge to have for an art teacher. Josh continues to show joy for drawing. It has become one of the ways that he connects with the world around him. He shares ideas between classmates and creates bonds through creativity, creating a sense of community without realizing it. This is the kind of magic that the world needs right now. Congratulations again to all of our distinguished art scholars, families, friends, and our amazing educators that are all a part of this. We I think co not coincidentally it is educator appreciation week in parallel to this evening. And so with that just a a massive amount of gratitude to all of our

027educators in this room and in this district for all the hard work that they do day in and day out in the classroom. We are here because of all of you in this room. Um, so I would prefer if you all could stay for just a few more moments as we have a few staff recognitions as well and that really feels like another great thing that we get the opportunity to highlight this evening. So turn it back over to you Dr. Clary. >> Thank you so much. Uh, each year, you know, our staff just doing amazing work uh, working with our scholars throughout the year, but we have a staff member that uh, comes in and just gets everything ready to go. I think it's one of the first appointments that we put on our

028calendar in fall that allows this special occasion to happen in the spring. So, it's my honor to uh recognize and just an outstanding educator and even better human being uh with the gift of flowers to Miss Lois Finer for everything that she does for the Roner School District and for the Ron uh school district department. Reverse. We're going to go in reverse order here. Uh next we have a larger group selection for uh acknowledgement for our staff. Uh the Ron area school district has been recognized as one of the nation's best communities of music education by the NAMM Foundation. Uh honoring our ongoing commitment to providing meaningful music opportunities to all for all students. Recipients of this national recognition are selected through a rigorous application and review process that evaluates key indicators such as district

029support, instructional time, student participation rates, facilities, and community engagement. This designation reflects measurable achievement and sustained commitment to music education. A special thanks to Samuel Cutter, uh, Badger Ridge Middle School and Veron Area High School Music Educator for completing the application and nominating Verona School District for this honor. Congratulations to our music educators, students, families, and community members who support music in our public public schools. This recognition reflects your dedication, passion, and belief in the power of music education. Congratulations to our full music department and music community. from the music department that would like to present. >> Thank you for standing so we can acknowledge your presence. >> Thank you for that. We would second the recognition of Sam Carter who is the one who really spearheaded the process for um our application for this

030award and we're so grateful for the support from the board and our administration and just the the greater Verona area community. It's a wonderful place to be a music teacher. I love it. And part of that is the the tremendous support that we have from both the school district and the community. So, thank you for everyone's role in making this happen. And I learned a new term and probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen in high school in music last Saturday at the Jazz concert. Uh, it's called Thunder. No, tornado. >> Piano tornado. Just phenomenal. High school students doing, you know, just playing and they kick each other off the off the bench and not not miss a beat. I'm making it sound easy, but it's the most it's the craziest thing I've ever

031seen in terms of uh and just outstanding outstanding uh musicians up there. So, I know they didn't get there by themselves, but just this Saturday was just an example of how dynamic this music department is. And congratulations to everybody that parttook in this in that operation. >> Just awards everywhere. Next we have Veron High School multilingual resource teacher uh and a multilingual department lead and president of Wisconsin teachers of speakers of other language. Uh Natalia Christ Castiva was a keynote speaker at the mislife conference. Slife stands for students with limited or interrupted formal education. She presented on Broner School District support for students with limited or interrupted form of education and reported that everyone was so amazed that we have something like this to support for uh for our students. So it is definitely unique

032to the Broner School District. We like to thank you uh Natalia for your outstanding work and representing Bron Area High uh school district at the conference and I believe you were I thought I saw you. Where' you go? There you go. Congratulations. I might use a little brief comment you added, Dr. Clarity, as our segue of just wow, how awful we have to spend so much time at board meetings celebrating successes. So much gratitude again to all of you for making time and space to be here as well on a Monday evening. But thank you for sharing your artwork with us, your scholars with us, educators, again, thank you for your time. We have a really robust agenda. You're more than welcome to stay. This is not a forced exit. However, uh we will take

033a brief pause if you wish to uh continue with your evening. Thank you all so much. I just All right, we are back. We'll continue on with our agenda. Um, next we have board of education reorganization. So, just in terms of um annual time frame. This is something that we do shortly after the spring elections each year. Um, we haven't had a change to any board members, but we are just going to revisit all of our board officers and some of our other roles this evening. Um, if board members are okay, we can do voice vote. We do have the ability to vote by paper, but we've typically done voice vote. Um, reminder that anyone can nominate anyone for roles and if the person who is nominated accepts that serves as a second and then

034we can take our votes. Um, so first would be for the election of president. I'm jumping in right off the bat. Um I would like to nominate Jennifer Murphy to be president and just as a vote of my extreme um confidence in you really really um outstanding in this role. >> Thank you. I'll accept minus some of the extra layers and I'll just process but I I will accept the nomination to continue. Thank you very much for the nomination. to do sentence. Is that >> we uh the second is because I said I would accept the nomination officially. Um any further discussion >> third. >> So how about we'll take a vote. All those in favor of approving >> Say that again. >> Are there any other nominations? >> All right. Thank you. >> For

035that. Uh, all those in favor of approving myself, Jennifer Murphy, as president for this coming year, signify with I. >> I will. I know exactly. Uh, and then we will shift to role of vice president. I would actually like to nominate John to continue in the role of vice president. >> The ying to my yang. John, >> bad cop. I feel like you cemented this deal with that last text. I'm gonna say perfection. >> I appreciate the part. I like it. >> Yeah, >> I did too. I was Well done. >> All right. >> Any other nominations? >> You're accepting your nomination as a second? I >> accept. >> All right. All those in favor of approving uh John as vice president for this coming year signify with I >> I >> moving on to

036treasurer. I will then go ahead and nominate Joe who I know I didn't work under some of previous treasurers who have left quite a legacy but I believe Joe Haynes is going to leave an equal impact and legacy as role of treasurer. Joe, I'm extremely grateful for your time, energy, suggestions. Yeah. Uh thank you for all the work that you put in that I know even as a a fellow leadership team member, I don't think I even know the number of hours that you're putting in to do that role. Um and I'm super appreciative. >> I second that. I mean, we didn't do that yet. >> Any other nominations? >> Joe, will you accept your nomination? Oh, sure. Yeah. >> All right. >> All those in favor of approving Joe as treasurer signify with I.

037>> I. >> Great. Any opposed? I haven't said that because I've heard all the eyes. Okay. Um, moving on to clerk. I would actually like to nominate Juan Carlos if you are willing to step into the role of clerk for this next year. >> Thank you for accepting that nomination. Are there any other nominations for roll of credit? >> Also included in >> all those in favor of approving Juan Carlos as serving as our uh board clerk signify with >> I3. And then moving on to deputy clerk. >> Uh wondering. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, Christopher, would you be willing to serve in role of deputy clerk for this coming year? >> I accept. >> Thank you. Wonderful. Any other nominations for deputy clerk? Right. All those in favor of approving Christopher

038is serving as deputy clerk for this coming year signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? just taking a moment um to recognize gratitude Corby for you for serving as role of clerk um and all the work that that takes with elections and everything. Super appreciative of your time and all the things that you do in service of this board beyond official title and role. Um so thank you for your service and excited to have some new members kind of taking on some new spaces here in our leadership. So thank you all. Um, moving on to WASBY delegate for next year. Corby, it's my understanding you are willing to continue to serve as our delegate. I do find that continuity can be quite uh beneficial. >> Yes, I would love to. >> Wonderful. Um, and want

039Carlos to serve as alternate. >> Happy to. >> Wonderful. Um, remind me, do we need a vote on those or is that >> No, you can do it as the same way as you did the other officer positions. You can do this. >> So, we are taking a vote. >> Okay, great. Can I do them at the same time? >> Yes. >> Okay. As a slate, we are going to uh any other nominations or volunteers. Uh so, the vote is to approve Corby as our WASBY delegate for January and want Carlos to serve as alternate. All those in favor signify with I. I. I. Orby. >> Oh, I I didn't know I but any opposed. Okay, we have WASBY delegate and alternate. Um, our CISA representative. I know John, you've you've been in that role

040for a while and curious if you'd be willing to continue to service our CISA 2 representative. >> Certainly. >> Any other nominations or volunteers? Okay. Nomination by me, second by John by accepting. All those in favor of approving John as our CISA 2 representative signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. Thank you, John. Um, our IDAC representatives, and we typically do three. Um, can you all remind me who served this past year on IDAC? Christopher, John, >> anyone else? >> I know. Adam. Um and so again, IDAC stands for Intergovernmental Development Advisory Council. So, uh basically board representatives, superintendent Dr. Clarity, assistant superintendent Chad Weezy, mayor of Pittsburgh, Mayor Verona, Town of Verona representatives, chamber um kind of coming to meet quarterly to talk about what's happening in our various school

041district communities. >> Are there interested? >> I would do it again. volunteers. Okay. >> I was doing it again. I would I think I would do it. I don't know if I I don't think I'm I'm on that committee. >> I was on it, but I didn't. >> You were. So, you want to do it actually? That'd be great. >> I I would like to to Yeah. be on it and actually go. >> Okay. So, I'm hearing John is volunteering. >> I can do it again. >> Just to maybe have a pitch I think is important. >> You can have three. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, John Juan Carlos and Christopher, I'm hearing. >> Did anyone get missed though? Who'd like to volunteer? >> Did anyone get missed who would like to volunteer? Right now,

042I'm hearing John Juan Carlos and Christopher to serve as our IDAC representatives. >> Okay, >> that's a nice grouping from Fitchburg town >> town. Yeah, exactly. To have that representation in those spaces. Thank you for the time. I' I've found them very interesting. It's kind of Yeah, just a great place to get some information and share and collaborate. Okay. Um, all those in favor of approving John, Juan, Carlos, and Christopher as our representatives to IDAC signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Thank you. Three for your service. Um, and then we do have our proposed calendar for 2627. You do have a hard copy in front of you right now. Um, thank you so much, Lori, for putting this together, including the notes that are written there. So this has happened really each year.

043There are a couple of times we have back-toback Mondays um based on number of Mondays in a month also based on staff PD days, holidays, etc. Um so those would have been kind of maybe potential glaring places to maybe notice any thoughts that you all have. But this is our proposed calendar open to any amendments or changes that anyone might have. Um I'm unaware but are there any holidays uh that we you don't think of that we might want to think about like Jewish holiday we try to >> get all that RC the team all of you yeah try to cross every >> yeah so this this should be representative of >> yeah if we catch it let us know but we try to we try to >> any further discussion or questions And note

044some of those backto-backs then also lead us into three weeks between some meetings. So there is kind of that. Yeah. >> All right. I would accept a motion then to approve the calendar draft as presented. >> Thank you, Christopher. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We'll take Meredith on that second. All those in favor of approving the board of education meetings draft uh as presented signify with I. >> I. >> Thank you, Corby. Um any opposed? All right. Our calendar has been approved for 2627. Uh we also take time to vote to designate uh Verona Press as our official district newspaper. I would accept a motion. Any discussion or questions about rotocrats being our official newspaper? Is there a motion? >> Thank you, Meredith. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Joe.

045>> It's hardcore. It's hard being virtual. >> Motion by Meredith, second by Joe. All those in favor of approving um the Verona Press as our official district newspaper signify with I. I. I. >> Any opposed? All right, the motion has passed. Um, vote to retain Lakeidge Bank as our fiscal depository for our general fund payroll accounts and debt service. That would be continuation of working with Lakeidge Bank. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Joe. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Juan. Carlos. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor of approving Lakeidge Bank as our fiscal depository signify with I. I. >> Thank you, Corby. Any opposed? All right, Lake Rich is our continued partner. And then finally, um, vote to retain legal counsel for the district from the firm of Rening,

046Lewis and Lacy, the firm of Godfrey and Khan, the firm of Coral Orus and Brady, and the firm of Boardman and Clark. Um, just those situations where board might need legal counsel. That's been some of our partnerships in the past. Is there a motion? >> So, >> thank you, Meredith. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Joe. It's really close. >> Faster than that. >> It's like watching Jeopardy. >> Uh, all those in favor of um approving to retain the legal councils that have been spoken of and are listed here signify with I. >> I. Corby. Any opposed? All right. The motion is approved. Thanks everyone. >> Corby, you got to check on your dog. I don't think it's moving. It's the other side. >> Oh my. >> Oh, we have gone. >>

047You know, >> it's harmless and lovely. >> All right, we will move on to uh board discussion. Another opportunity with thanks to some of our team uh including Joe this evening. Um, we had a board meeting a number of weeks ago where we talked a bit about property tax bills, just having an understanding of all the layers and complexities related to school finance. Um, and this month we're going to or this meeting we're going to take an opportunity to talk a bit about vouchers and how they impact the tax bill. Um, so we do have some slides. Joe, I appreciate you kind of taking the lead on some of this discussion with us. >> Yeah. Uh, thanks Jen. I uh when we decided we were going to talk about this at meeting, I kind of

048enthusiastically volunteered to lead this discussion because this has kind of been a pet issue of mine for a while. Uh there was a a piece that that the district asked me to write and I happily did a couple of months ago in the Verona Press about just about uh the impact that vouchers are having on us as a district. Here we're talking about a little bit of of a more specific topic, but it is important to get Oh, we're not on the right side. um to get a little bit of background because this is the thing that that I find pretty shocking is when I speak to people. Nobody is aware how people are kind of generally aware of what vouchers are, but there is not a very good awareness among the general public about

049how vouchers are funded. Uh how it's funded and and Chad gets to tell me if I say anything that's wrong. Uh but in general, any student from our district that participates in a voucher program that's not paid for by the state, the state takes that amount of money to pay for the voucher out of our general aid that we receive from the state. In exchange, our taxing authority goes up by an amount that's the same amount that it's deducted from our general aid. So what that means is that buck keeps getting passed until it gets to the taxpayer. So the ultimate payer of voucher student uh uh tuition is paid by local property tax bills of the taxpayers in the district where that student came from. Uh that's the thing that I think not very

050many people know about and I think that's intentional. It they've created this opaque system so that nobody really knows this. that what we're here talking about today is there have been oh and this is this slide talks about the total impact uh I believe this is statewide is this number statewide correct uh of what >> across the state the deduction in you know state aid that's given to public schools uh that's that amount which is a crazy number here in Verona that number is something like $890,000 this year that we lost out on state aid due to students that reside in our district who are attending attending voucher schools. Pete's raising >> $940,000 and what that amounts to in in mill rate terms is 11 cents of our 1066 mill rate goes to pay for

051those voucher schools. So over 1% of all of the taxes that we collect from our taxpayers gets sent to private schools. Private schools that aren't held to the same standards that we're held to. That uh teachers don't have to be subject to the same lensure standards that our teachers do. Uh and most importantly to me at least, schools where the taxpayers whose money is going to them have absolutely no say in how those schools are operated or administered. here. We use your tax dollars, but if you don't like what we're doing, you get to vote the seven of us out and bring someone in that'll do what you want. You don't get to do that with vouch your money that's going to voucher schools. And the big thing that I want everyone to realize is

052that number that we just talked about over 1% of our mill rate, $940,000 this year, that has more than doubled in the last two years. So there is a trend on this. Maybe it's three years. There is a trend on this that is concerning and we may very well in the future, especially if some um uh you know groups that are lobbying to have the income thresholds reduced um uh or sorry the income limits increased to participate in the programs. We're going to start seeing a much bigger impact of this. And so what we're talking about is is whether you are in favor of or not in favor of vouchers. Obviously, I am not in favor of them, but I think the one thing we should all be able to agree on is that everybody

053have the same clarity as in terms of how that funding works. And it isn't fair to the district that our property taxpayers receive a bill in the mail that just says how much they're paying to the district. And 1% of that isn't something we control. It's not going to our schools. It's not benefiting our staff or our students. it's going to these private schools. Uh, and so there was there was I think a bill this year in the state legislature mandating transparency on tax bills that said you have to identify how much of a mill rate is going to fund voucher programs. That was not successful. But where we're at now is that there is an effort to voluntarily work with municipalities to uh have tax bills be transparent and be fair to the district

054to identify how much of a mill rate is being attributed or or is going to pay for voucher school programs. So in our case, it would be, you know, of our 1066 mill rate, 11 cents or probably more than 11 cents of that is going to those voucher programs. So, we're trying to maybe start a conversation with the municipalities that we serve. As you can see, there's lots of different municipalities that we serve. Uh, and so our taxpayers are kind of spread out among different municipalities. But, but the goal would be to work with all of them to see uh to to really have that transparency. And I think it's in everybody's best interest, even if you're in favor of voucher programs, for people to know where that money is coming from. So, I guess

055that's that's the end of my soap box. I don't know if we all want to keep talk more about >> I did have one thing to say and I appreciate you bringing this up. I think this is important and I think this is something as somebody without students in the school district right now as you know somebody who is paying property tax um that goes to fund education in our district. Um I think this is incredibly important because we want all of our students to succeed. But there is theory that your property tax to fund education is bettering your community, is increasing your property value. Even if you don't have students in the school, you are benefiting from a high level of district education. Um, everyone in the community is benefiting from the quality of

056education that our district serves. Um, and I think when we are outsourcing the funds that could be benefiting, you know, our community, when we're outsourcing those to other schools, um, we're really doing everyone a disservice. whether you have students in the district, your property, you know, your homeowners who don't have kids in the district anymore. This is um this is just undercutting kind of the the sole the purpose of property tax and the local control of our districts and our education. And I actually appreciate that like you bringing this up is something that I didn't realize what that dollar amount was overall and it's it's rather shocking. I think it's also important to highlight the the lack of accountability where that money goes. You know, we put a lot of effort here into being transparent

057about everything we do. You're going to know how much money we spend on a roof tonight. >> Like you're going to know like how that process has worked. You know, we put all those reports out there like meeting by meeting, month by month to show the community that pays those property taxes um where their money's going. Um, and again, if you don't like it, you can work on changing it. But with that 1%, that money that's then siphoned off to go to private schools, there's no accountability to that. You don't know how that's spent. You don't know where that's spent. You don't know why that's spent. And that just flies in the face of like just good government any which way you cut it, whether you believe in vouchers or not. And um you know

058the state's been trying vouchers for 30 years and it appears at this point like no more people are going to private schools than were when they started auction programs. This is just a subsidy like that doesn't have any accountability. So I think it's important to put some clarity out there. Putting it on the tax bill is important to see how much is going. Yeah, >> the piece that I struggle with is I I can logically almost call this a double whammy to taxpayers, but you could almost triple it. So, I pay my tax bill with the assumption that it's going to my local schools. That piece gets taken and siphoned off for vouchers and then my district has the permission to ask me for more tax money to make up for that loss. And I've

059also given money to the state of Wisconsin on the presumption that they're going to also give their fair share back to my public schools. So in a way it feels like I'm getting taxed three times for the thing that in my head I ought to be paying for once if the system is functioning. Um so to the point at the table whatever your philosophy is that alone ought to feel really wrong that something in the system is broken not functioning and for 30 years really sneaky and yucky that that's really what this boils down to. And to your point, Joe, it's such a complex system to try to understand that I think a lot of it relies on us not understanding because I think if a lot more of us did, we might be more

060vocally upset and pushed for change. >> I'm super appreciative of the transparency we're trying to bring to this reality. Um I know um one of the shocking pieces we're seeing that you know private schools don't have to follow non-discrimination law and I've seen that impact when I worked in Seattle where the Catholic uh school district fired school teachers for being LGBTQ and the uprising from our community saying that's not right. uh and it didn't matter because it was a private school and I that's just by example from Seattle not here locally but I think you know we we we follow uh these u we have it built into our system to make sure that we're understanding barriers for our students and for our community. So I I think you know that's one of the reasons

061why uh why I love this district and I feel that is unfair that being pushed to other schools that would can not have that value of theirs. So, thank you for that bringing this as a as a transparency piece for our community. >> I also Chris to to build off that like they don't have to take every student. They can pick and choose and they do pick and choose. And I think that you know it's just important if you're going to statewide if we're going to spend $1.8 8 billion dollar >> of public money to go to private institutions that pick and choose how they operate and who they serve and and we're statewide going to be sitting on whatever however many billions of dollars of tax surplus. Like, you know, I get ticked off

062every time I see my property tax bill. I don't get ticked off about how much we pay in Verona because I know where it's going. you. I know we're going to get new roofs. I know we're paying for good teachers that are winning all these awards and doing all these great things, but then I see multiple billions of dollars just sitting there and going to places where there's no accountability and it pisses me off. It should piss a lot of people off. >> Thanks to this board, this team for bringing these types of conversations to the board table. Um, I think it's an important role that we serve also is being able to educate as stewards in the roles that we're in, the things that we learn and deep dive into that again maybe the

063general public does not. Um, I think this is a well served space to have these conversations. Um, if you are listening, if you are watching, share, make sure people know that this conversation has happened in our best way of trying to educate. I think it's valuable work. Thank you again, Joe, for just all the energy that you spend and being able to explain it to us in a way that made a lot of sense, which is very complex as well with some of this. So, thank you. >> Any final comments or thoughts? >> Yeah, we, you know, keep working with the municipalities and report back if there's any >> I had a question. Is there as is there a bill that's being proposed to make this make this official or has to be included in

064tax notices? It was proposed but >> the assembly >> completely shut down. It went nowhere. >> So the goal working in partnership with the the board of education is you are able to do this on the local level at your own individual municipalities. So there's uh not only school district but a cohort of districts in Day County that are on the same pathway importance. We do have like Fitsburg that serves three school districts. So all three school districts looking to be the same pathway. they'll let them tell their their story, but there is continuity in that belief around the work that we're doing. >> That's great. Yeah, because it would be great. I'm sure that's probably just in the works is at the same time as this gets rolled out that I don't know maybe

065we get some I'd be happy to to or maybe Joe I don't want to tell you but write an oped piece maybe in Rona Press or local papers to kind of like did you know section kind of highlighting this but getting in the hands of many more community members um because those publications aren't all local coffee shops and I see a lot of residents reading and if we could just get that presence there as we're rolling this out, I think to maximize the impact hopefully the reaction that we're hoping for for people to maybe better. Just wanted to throw that out there. I'd be happy to be part of those efforts. >> This one, Carlos. >> Yep. >> All right, moving on to our superintendence report, which usually is not item seven on our agenda.

066Um well, good evening again, Master Crow, colleagues of of two. Thank you, Bremer family. Uh first, we're going to uh celebrate two uh potential higher spending board approval that's in um consent this after or this this afternoon. Uh and that is uh two associate principles that'll be effective July 1st, 2026. The first being Echer Creek Elementary. Uh, and this Hope Gates >> Gates. Thank you. Hope Yates from uh I can't say where she's from. Hope Gates. >> Yeah. And for Ronary High School associate principalis, >> Tisa, >> can you say a nice >> Tisa Corkerin >> Tisa Corkran >> Corkran? Thank you >> for Broner. For Broner High School. I do want to communicate to uh especially as we're getting ready to do a budget presentation and make clear we are not adding two new

067administrative positions to the Bruner School District. Uh obviously we're celebrating uh uh Todd Bruner uh and that created the position where the associate principal there. uh Kirsten became the principal which created that position and uh also Tamara Sudter who is taking another position in a in a different district created the spot at the high school. Um so it is a neutral ad admin move >> and I just want to add to that since you're saying that depending on who's listening tonight um that they everyone should know that close to 80% if not 80% last time I checked of our funding goes towards staff. Absolutely. >> So, a lot of the money that we're using, we're investing into the staff. >> Correct. >> Because I know I hear from some communities outside of our district that

068the concern is administrative bloat and things that don't really move the dial. That's something that we're not doing here. >> For whoever's listening that is concerned or might even have a little bit of that running to the mind, it's not here. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thanks for the lifting up. >> All right. So, I apologize that I've messed up Lisa's uh last name. If you're watching, I I really do apologize and I will get it right when you're here in person uh to to make sure that you're welcome to the district and look forward to having that finalized and consent later on today. All right. Uh, next I'm going to turn it over to Chad and Pete, the dynamic duo, to talk about our budget and for budget and operations update. All right.

069You had a steady dose of Amy and friends the last couple of board meetings. So, it >> did you reintroduce yourself? I'm sorry. superintendent. It's been a long It's good to see everybody, but we uh we do have a I think a lofty agenda on the operations side with lots of uh smaller things that we're looking for board feedback and approval on tonight. So, our lengthy list of outcomes, we're just going to do a quick calendar refresh. We're going to dive into the 2526 budget. Uh where we'll talk through year end. Uh we do need a board vote tonight on some budget transfers and that's we do that about this time every year uh to true up our books to make sure they're as accurate as possible uh before DPI does their aid estimate for

070next year. Uh we do have a um a recommendation regarding staff compensation. Uh we're looking for board approval on we you heard from Adam and myself uh regarding the possibility of a video scoreboard. Uh we're bringing that back to you tonight with some good news and hope overlord approval. Uh and then the exciting uh um approval of a roof project. Uh but uh John will be here to answer any questions you might have on that. Uh then we're looking ahead to 2627. Uh we've tweaked a few of our budget assumptions. Um and we want to share that with the board. Um we've continued to kind of close gaps and then get bad news. Close a gap and get some bad news. Uh so we're going to share that with all of you. Uh and then

071kind of just make sure we're all on the same page for uh what's ahead for the 2627 budget. Uh so next again we're kind of marching our way through um a few key dates uh to actually get to uh closing this fiscal year and then eventually proposing a 26 27th budget for the board. Um we have an update tonight. big I think the big things going on. We're still actively collectively bargaining. We had a a meeting tonight with VESPA um and hope to reach closure regarding their contract and VAEA's contract uh prior to July 1 and those are just ongoing conversations. Uh we do get an equalized aid estimate on July 1st. Uh but um I'm confident pets will be as accurate or more. Um but that is kind of one of the major milestones

072in the budget. uh we will release a draft budget uh for the 2627 to all of you uh on middle August and then reminder we're going all the way to the end of October uh before we end up passing the levy for the 2627 budget. Uh a few quick things on uh the 2526 uh budget that we will going be going through tonight. Uh, so again, this is the time of year, uh, if I had a nickel for every time to tell Pete, "Pete, you're losing sleep over this. You're never gonna Pete is the, uh, the master of trying to project where things will end up." Uh, he's good with state aid to the point that it's half a percent. Uh, it kills him that he can't nail how our year is going to wrap

073up. uh regarding the budget, we have sound foundation and we end up in a similar spot between one or two percent uh every year of unspent resources just where we want to be. Pete and Michelle do an amazing job calculating where we end up with payroll uh and benefits, but you don't always know all of the bills coming due uh in the month of May and June as we wrap up the year. We're here tonight to tell you that we believe we're on solid footing. We will not be closing up the year uh with a deficit budget. Um and again, we'll have some options regarding either a fund balance deposit out of the 2526 budget. As a reminder to the board, we also have OPAD hanging out there. Um, so the post retirement benefit thing,

074uh, we could come with a recommendation to you that, uh, we use some of the surplus budget and it's not huge, but whatever we end up with to offset us being a little short on where we're going to end up with full path. And again, stop me if you've got questions along the way. We do have a little uh um, a little different uh, recommendation for you this evening regarding death management. primarily um our fund 39 debt and I I certainly want to answer questions if you have any. So this is the biggest uh budget revision we are asking the school board for this evening. Uh Pete and I originally built into the 2526 budget paying our normal about $10 million uh in fund 39 payment relative to our capital debt primarily from the high

075school and then an additional almost $6 million uh in additional payment that remember offsets interest cost, shortens the duration of the loan we essentially have um and uh in the end is our way of kind of managing the meal Uh we're bringing we're bringing you an additional option that quite honestly Pete put two months into uh to get us to tonight and I'm going to turn the slide over to him here in a second. Uh that we now have the option because all of our debt is callable. Uh which means uh that we can if if someone won the lottery and said we want to pay all hundred million dollars of our remaining uh um debt on the on the high school, we could do it. defeasence is no longer even an option because we

076don't have call dates that are in the distant future. We've defeased all the money we can which means now we can make if we wanted and that's our recommendation tonight. We can make a minimum debt payment from this year's budget and then make an extra big payment for next year's budget. Uh and what that does and then we're going to have Pete go through what it actually does for the aid. um it would put us into something called hold harmless. So if there's a year our cost per pupil goes up way outside the state average and we would get a reduction in aid that would be to the tune of 15% or more. The state puts a stop gap in that says we can't reduce your aid more than 15% in one year if you're

077following me so far. Uh, and what this will do, I'm gonna have Pete work you through this slide. And again, a huge credit to Pete for all the work he put in, all the phone calls uh he put in because we're kind of toggling the the minimal amount of interest uh savings that we'll lose and the gain in state aid. That's the balancing act I've been pushing Pete on uh over the last few months before we came to you uh with this recommendation. Pete, can you kind of walk us through your method on how you got here and maybe correct me if I missed anything uh in terms of what we're recommending tonight? Sure. Thank you, Chad. Um well, yeah, what we're talking about here is the state equalization formula. And as Chad says, I

078have a pretty good knowledge on how it works. There's a lot of moving pieces in there. And some of the important things to remember I have up here is bullet points. And the first thing to remember is the aid that we're going to receive next year is based off of data from this year. Whether it's our student count, our property value, or how we're spending. It's all it's all that. And it's also how everyone else is spending and their student count and their property value and such too. But the important thing to remember is it's the prior year data. Um Chad had mentioned the old harmless. Uh it's the state calls it special adjustment aid, but it is the 85% rule, meaning that you will not get less than 85% of the aid you got

079in the previous year. So, we're going to use that uh piece of information, too. Um Chad has also said we had the additional levy in fund 39 this year. Um and the way it's looking right now is we are projecting to be in hold harmless in uh the 26 I'm sorry the 2728 year the way right now even if we don't do anything else right now just the way our property value is going up compared to the rest of the state and our spending and our student count uh because still think we're turning around for student count we're gonna going to come up there and unfortunately that's probably going to put us to the realm of whole harmless Now, knowing what we know here, um, we can do a little bit of a little bit

080of a shift of of how we're going to be paying down this extra money. We've already made our minimum debt payments for 25 26 year. So, it was just right around $10 million is what we made, but we had almost $16 million sitting out there as what the levy was. So, we were going to pay that this year. But what happens is if I shift that payment to July, it's really just a matter of a couple of months. Yeah. Then all of a sudden it becomes next year. That's the 20 26 27 school year. So then it goes into that year's aid formula. So two things happen. And if you look at the the slide here is we end up getting more aid in 2627 because we lowered our spending in 2526. we lowered it

081by that $5.7 million. That helps us in the aid formula, right? Um now the important thing to remember too is that since we thought that or were projected to be in whole harmless in uh 2728 that um we can't lose more than the 15% and since we already went up a bit in aid 26 27 I know this is so so confusing um but since we had already gone up in 26 27 it raises that bar of what that 15% is. So we're getting a jump in 2627 um for for more aid and then >> 85% of a larger number. So that's why we have a $980,000 gain one year when probably I'm guessing that's about 85% of of 980,000 is the 833,000 cover the the following year. So just by shifting the aid payment

082just I'm sorry the the debt payment just a couple months to sometime into next year we can see you know $1.8 million roughly more we don't know how the rest of the district is going to or I'm sorry the rest of the state is going to be but based off of all the assumptions that we've made out here and ch changing nothing else in any of our assumptions out there other than when we make that payment out there this shows us with $1.8 8 million more in in tax relief. All right. And I'm going to add one more layer to this. I don't see any eyes rolling to the back of heads. Yeah. A reminder, aid is not more spendable money. We get we get a per pupil revenue limit from the state of Wisconsin

083that's funded by aid and property taxes. So to Pete's point, getting more aid from the state means that we're we have less of a burden on property taxpayers. But in the Veron area school district, we have been prioritizing a level or slightly sinking mill rate and still prioritizing uh the fact that we don't yo-yo taxes every year. So, if that theory holds true for next year's budget and we snag another $980,000 in aid, it affords the board the opportunity to keep the mill rate flat. And if we tax for that additional aid that we picked up, if you guys are following me, we have an extra million dollars to pay down the debt on the high school. Uh, so it's kind of a double win if we keep the mill rate flat and we get

084more aid, but then we backfill with what we've historically done, save on interest for the high school, keep our mill rate steady, we pick up really more tools in the toolbox, uh, for us to do the budget for next year. >> That increase is being driven by just an expectation of property values more. >> That's it's our it's how much we how much we spend per student, right? how much our property value is per student compared to the rest of the state and then what happens with our student population. >> Yep. >> The 5% increase in property values. >> We're out facing the we're for the most part we're all facing the state in all of those categories. >> So we're what they call negatively. >> That was a lot purposeful pause here. Any questions?

085No, I think it's important to just highlight the 10 and a half million in interest savings bar that was on the previous slide, >> you know, so that all of these terms and it's not working like a traditional home mortgage for people that are following along at home like we're able to set aside and do this defecence thing and that saved the district $10.5 million in interest. Correct. So, >> all right. But I did have a question. Sorry, because I was talking to that extra $1 million. >> Yeah. >> Explain where that extra $1 million I'm going to get through the tax. >> They're keeping the mill rate the same. >> Because that's a percentage of a larger number. What's the larger number that we get to get extra money from based on the >>

086Well, you the board essentially gets um unlimited taxing capacity up to what we owe for 30. uh you by law could raise the mill rate back to 13.5 and say this year we're going to pay down $30 million on the high school. We wouldn't want to do that. To Joe's point earlier, this would be a chance that you guys maybe would have a hot seat a hot board seat uh if if you double taxes one year for fun. Uh but um we really we prioritize leveling the mill rate so we don't yo-yo it. Kind of it's been going up kind of proportionally with what happens with your property value. So to uh your question, essentially if if we just took the extra eight and lowered our tax levy, let's pretend we it was lowered to

087$10, people would see property tax relief that that that year. You as a board, you have the right to do that any year. We can roll it back all the way to minimum debt payments if we wanted. Um you're setting yourself up, I think, for a higher stakes operating referendum. and we would be foregoing interest savings uh to the tune of almost $11 million so far. So, um so if if if we said, "Oh, we got more aid. Here's the rest of what we can tax for per uh the the state revenue limit." Uh and we just gave all that aid and tax relief. We could do that. >> If we continue to keep the mill rate level, >> the only way to make the mill rate level is to raise it back up to

0881066. Got it. Um, so, so if you're following me that and the only way to do that in 139, uh, and then we'd be back on the, uh, train for interest savings, uh, you know, we're going to have a third of a our next elementary school, uh, essentially paid for through interest savings, uh, by the time the board is done with this, uh, which is a big deal. Yeah, thank you. >> Makes sense to me. Okay, we have some other odds and ends budget revisions and we're going to try to not make the rest of this as technical as the last 10 minutes were. Um, so here is the budget revision that you'll see tonight. Essentially, we're pulling back that $5.7 million in this year's budget. It will get deposited into fund balance in fund

08939 and then we'll use it in July to make an extra big payment on in fund 39. That's that budget revision requires a board vote. The other budget revisions going on are really just uh Pete in cleanup mode. Uh making sure we get the perfect account number in something called a woofer code uh that we end up having to submit to DPI. Pete submits um a 1 million line budget to DPI that gets uploaded and that's actually used for the equalized aid estimate that ends up uh coming out every July. Um so the other budget revisions are all balanced revisions which means an expenditures matching a revenue and really in the end is Pete changing account codes uh to be more accurate with DPI. We do this every year. Um, so that's and we've got

090uh on uh the fund 10 budget revisions and transfers. All of that is detailed out on kind of what account codes uh we are hitting. Uh but in the end uh it is all balanced when it comes to revenues and expected expenditures. Um, uh, Pete, I don't know if you have anything else there. It's a lot of Yeah. And the next slide will also show, uh, the fund 20, the fund 27 or the special education fund and the the big $5.7 million change on that for fund 39. So, yeah, I think Chad hit the nail on the the head right there. It it is something that we like to do every year so we can true up our budget to get it a little bit more accurate as it's going into the DPI DPI coffers

091for their calculations as they're trying to get that estimate out to everyone. So that's all I have questions on any of that at all? There are other little odds and ends in there. Um, you know, we uh if a principal decided they wanted to move some money around within their budget, uh, we allow that, but he wants to make sure it's coded correctly in terms of what the spend is going to be. But it's all it's we're not changing anything by fund number. It's all further down the account chain in terms of really its function, something called a function. Yeah. >> Okay. There is the big vote for you is pulling back 5.7. Um and I believe the uh rule is that for a budget revision and transfer up here has to be 2/3 of

092the board. So which is actually probably on the sheet that I sent to you tonight. So all right. So Jen, we've got I think are you going to hold all all the board votes until board action part? I'm I'm fine either way. I mean, >> yeah, that's how it's listed on the agenda is that's keep going you all and then we >> So, we've given some suggested language y and we'll have a board vote on that later. >> Um, we have a and then we're going to kind of speed through these because that was pretty technical and I apologize for that. Um, also in the 25 also kind of pushing forward uh for tonight another board vote. Um, and we have done this uh almost every year, especially during collective bargaining season. Um, we would

093like to recommend to the board that um that we pass a preliminary 2627 budget uh to honor our staff with credit for a year of service in line with their salary schedule. Um, as a reminder, on average for our non-administrative staff, that's about a 2% pay increase. Um we're we believe we know we've got that 2% in the budget that we're going to share with you uh later on this evening. Uh and again it's on an annual basis we believe it's the right thing to do uh if the funding's there. Um so it's kind of a preliminary and more than anything this is a a vote for our staff and for Michelle as she's starting to put together teacher contacts for the following year. Any questions on that? Okay. Next, and this would come out

094of this year's budget. We're bringing back what we believe is this exciting project. Um, as uh as a reminder to the board, uh we believe this is a uh you know, this is a kind of a double or triple win for the school district. Uh if we can do this, uh one uh we get a really cool new video board for uh our our stadium. Uh I think just as exciting will be the fact that uh we will be able to have students uh involved in digital marketing uh and uh in in-game production. And I do look forward to the day that we may even have a student doing a little bit of uh splicing and cutting up the ads and even this timeout brought to you by um and that's the other part of

095this. Uh in the end, we know this scoreboard after approval uh will end up being a revenue generator for our school district. Um and we the budget you're going to see for 2627 is not rainbows and unicorns. It's a it's a rough budget. Uh and we we do think this is a few of the things you'll hear tonight. Uh this is something that makes fiscal responsibility in addition to the fact that having a new school board that our uh our students can engage in dig digital marketing really is exciting. Um it also is a chance for um local trusted businesses who really care about uh the Von Area School District and want some public recognition deservedly so uh for that. uh it gives them an opportunity I think to be more on display for the

096the work many of them are already doing uh to support our schools. Uh the other additional piece I'm bringing to you tonight uh is that we have worked out a deal with Lakeidge Bank uh that they have agreed to finance this at 0% uh for a 10-year loan uh which I I met with uh Scott, their executive vice president here two weeks ago. uh he believes it's the first in the history of Lake Richmond. Uh which is which is pretty cool. This took a while put together uh behind the scenes, but does afford us the possibility of uh being able to breathe a little bit. I'm not bringing you an unbalanced budget and telling you uh I need we need half a million dollars on the wrong end uh for 2627 out of fund balance

097uh to pay for this until we uh gather sponsorships. This is a this is an amazing luxury that Lakeidge Bank has given us and we were excited to share that news with all of you tonight. I'll take questions on this last piece uh will be after board approval we'll sign contracts. Uh and Jen, I I want to make sure we get the language on this right tonight. Uh so we're going to ask for your approval for the purchase of the scoreboard. Uh but we also want to verbalize the approval of the 0% loan from Lakeidge Bank. both of those uh in a board vote this evening and uh people will get going on the the loan paperwork that we've already started first thing tomorrow. Um and we um we believe uh John Bunner and I

098just met with the Dtactronics team this week uh this last week. We we think it'll be ready for our our first games in the fall which will be fun. >> Questions on that? >> No, not necessarily question but just a couple of comments. I I think it's important to emphasize how valuable that 0% loan is spread out over 10 years. That means like I know we are saying here the price is 3.99 but in terms of actual future dollars it's significantly less than that. >> Um just because of that financing that we're able to get a and the fact that we're going to be this is going to be a revenue generating thing for us. this is this is it would be financially irresponsible of us not to do this at at this cost. And

099that's separate and aside from the like we just saw students in here today with video production skills and to have an avenue for them to be able to students to be able to do that kind of thing and show off their talents is a a great educational tool in addition to the financial benefit of this. So I'm very much in favor. >> The curriculum's already built. the crib has already built health. >> Yeah, that's so amazing. And the partnership with our educators, right, everyone being all in on this idea that this is not just a scoreboard. >> Um there's so much trickle down impact of this that we've talked about and as a reminder to the community, we've talked about the Dacttronics piece at prior meetings. Um so this feels like a a wrap-up and

100a summary of previous dialogue. Um, but you know, I know we took that formal vote earlier to approve Lake Bridge as our partner, but I mean, wow, what an amazing um, just opportunity that Lake Bridge Bank is giving our district to be able to move forward with something like this. >> No question. I think when we talk about like the community partnerships that we have and businesses in the community that support our district and this is a huge vote of support from Lake Bank and I I know that there's other businesses that will be very excited to support the district in a way advertising this is a great opportunity. I think I've made my thoughts clear on the existing school board in past meetings. We'll just That is a thing. Thrilled that we are moving

101forward with >> Yep. We'll be able to hear what the announcements say. That'll be great. >> Yes. It's exciting. Uh the only other piece I'll add on this ahead of the vote, we did do a consent memo for it. Uh so we detailed um a huge thank you to John Bremer. He didn't have to do this. Well, he's kind of volunte John John's taking over essentially the general contracting duties of the installation. Uh so um after we teased our way through this and John did a bunch of leg work, I think we pulled close to $100,000 of cost out of this project uh with John doing that work. So between that uh and the 0% financing, it's a it's a big deal. So John taking care of all the wiring, uh the install, all the

102coordination, the site work, taking down the fence, putting the fence back up, making sure the track doesn't get damaged. Um and John and his team are going to take it over. That's amazing. Thank you. >> That is a big deal. >> Okay. Uh the other consent memo tonight, not as exciting as that chronics, uh but uh we are going I I believe this is year three of uh Mr. Bremer and his team uh um putting our $1 million of 141 to good use uh at Badger, which needed a full roof replacement. John didn't have it in his budget uh to do the whole thing, but we teased it apart uh in three sections and now Badger will be in a very good spot as far as the roof membrane goes. Reminder, if we did not

103levy that million dollars a year, what likely would have happened, John would have patched that thing for the next five or six. We would have had leaks all the way through the building. You would have had emails on our leaky roof. and then next time we went to operate referendum, I would have asked the board to tack on a capital referendum. Um, so that's kind of throwing good money at a bad problem. Um, and we were able to I think in general we've been able to stay ahead or at least on pace with roofing projects and window projects around the district because we made the decision to budget a million dollars a year for John to do maintenance projects on on all of our buildings and perfectly in line with what we tonight >> which

104I did I know we're going to talk about that and this was shared in your video about just the proactive way that this team works to prevent being reactive when it comes to building maintenance. Um, and you kind of highlighted, I don't think we have to name names. It's just the the nature of the work of school districts that often times districts are forced to be reactive because of budgetary constraints. And the fact that John, you and your team can be so proactive and have a plan, a long range plan to know what to do incrementally, not only budgetarily, but also what makes sense structurally is just so much gratitude to all of that and really elevating my perception of how unique this is. >> Agreed. and our survey results say so accordingly. That's OE12.

105I'll say it I'll save it for later. Only else I'll add on the roofing project is the roofing product John is putting on is drastically in increasing the R value of our roof. So, uh it also uh it's a gift that keeps on giving with a 20-year roof membrane that has a much higher insulation value as well. So, that's that's good. That's good, too. Just to put in the space quick, like consistent with roses, this is the result of a competitive bidding process and and all that >> it is. Yep. John works with a roofing consultant puts together an exact spec and this is this is actually competitive bid. This is not an RFP. Uh John team with a consultant say this is the exact product we want. Here's how thick it is. Here's what

106it's made of. Give us your number. Yeah, I appreciate the transparency around that competitive bidding process because I did see a couple numbers being thrown out there. >> There was a delta of like 50 to 60 grand. >> It's why we do it amongst the other providers. So, great work there. I love seeing that stuff. >> Yeah. I think when we're sitting here in this like brand new building, it's easy to forget that we're also stewards of some very old buildings that have been taken very good care of. So that's a huge um amount of thanks for the proactive work that's been done for this type of thing. How old is Badger Ridge now? Since it's been the high school, it's been there since the >> 60s. So >> edition in 70s, edition in the

10790s. It's had three different ads, right? At least three. >> Yeah. And it's it's hanging in there pretty well. So I brought it to work. And again, it's easy to lose sight of older buildings when we're sitting in this, you know, beautiful new building. Um, but the fact that all of our buildings are in such great shape is really important. So, thanks. >> Okay. All right. We're going to do a real brief uh budget update on 2627. Uh, the board is very familiar with this, so we're just really going to walk you through what's changed. Uh, one, and we shared this in a weekly update to the board. Uh, we did see a reduction in Title One funding. I'm going to go through that. Uh we've firmed up staffing and have a very good idea

108where we're going to be for next year regarding that. We already talked through what's going on with the debt payment for next year, but wanted to make sure the board knew that now would land in next year's budget and the five-year forecast reflects that. Um and uh healthcare, we we were hopeful we were going to get 7%. Uh and we can talk into a little more detail there. Looks like our renewal is going to be 7.9 uh% by K12 standards. This is still good. It's still a kick in the pants. $800,000 increase for healthcare uh um money that we could could be going to staffing and supporting our staff continues to be disappointing, but it's the it's the nature of the industry right now. Uh so I'll zip through these. So, here's a little history

109on on federal title one uh funding that essentially uh in our building, I believe Amy's here, lots of instructional coaches uh and folks helping with the implementation of curriculum uh designed to close gaps. Uh there is the history of title one funding uh and kind of our peak was two three years ago where we were over half a million dollars uh in title funding. I literally got a personal phone call from DPI saying, "Heads up, this one's going to hurt." Uh, and it did. Um, so we're we're expected to see a 59% reduction in title funding uh for for next year. That's really a combination of two things. Uh the federal funding is going down. One, two, um one of the main drivers of who gets title one funding uh is our level of impoverished

110students. Um, so our free and reduced lunch population matters. Um, and I I think you've heard from Dr. Clarity a number of times. I I think it is a reflection of Bane County. It's a reflection of our school district. The cost of living continues to go up. Um, and we are seeing a school district that we have fewer and fewer students of needs and that's reflected uh in our our our federal reimbursement. That's not saying that uh we don't need the federal funding and there aren't gap reduction measures that are needed by those folks. Uh we're just getting far less money from the federal government. Um so we built that into the into next year's budget. So again, we found a few wins and then we kind of had the rug swept out. Uh so

111the board's familiar with this. These are renewed uh budget assumptions. Uh we built in healthcare. uh we did now reflect that we will be down uh six FTE from the year before. Those are all from uh resignations for retirements and efficiencies we found in our budget. Uh and uh the uh we bumped the healthcare up to 7.9 to get us to the five-year model. Uh the board is very familiar with. Uh so as this stands with all of the new budget assumptions uh built in with still 2.6% CPI and the 2% step increase uh that the board is building tonight. Uh if we if we package that all up and asked you to pass next year's budget right now, it would be $1.6 million short. Um, so we have uh very few levers left for

112the 2627 uh budget because we've reduced our staff and we think we have a better idea of where those assumptions are going to land. Uh um CPI and collective bargaining are one of the main places that we still need to reach common ground with both of our unions uh to get to a balanced budget. That's for next year's budget. Um, so, um, again, these have been kind of our, uh, our levers to try to balance this thing. I don't see a ton of staffing reduction at this point. Uh, there's a chance kindergarten is tracking pretty positively right now. Uh, I think there's even a chance we may actually have to hire a kindergarten teacher or move one around. Uh, because kindergarten numbers are looking good for early enrollment. Uh the annual step freeze was a

113potential budget saver, was never going to really be anything we recommended to the board. That comes at a $1.3 million cost. And now that's kind of off the table. The CPI adjustment is about $2 million if we went all the way to 263 uh to get a balanced budget. Um, I am not recommending to you tonight to reduce John Bremer's budget uh for staff compensation, but the board does have uh that that money comes from Font 10. That's our operating authority. Um, and you would have the authority to say, Chad, I want you to consider doing this um for a year. I would recommend it, but it would be your authority. Um, and healthcare plan design changes. I'm saying very unlikely at this point since we're only one year into Dean. Uh, and I think

114kind of a full year of working our way through it to see where we're at. >> All right, here's what we got going ahead of us. We're going to continue to monitor enrollment. Uh Nate and the team will be busy with open enrollment in the coming month. Uh, we'll finalize our staffing plan. We're getting pretty close on that. Uh, collective bargaining is going. Uh, we will monitor anything going on with the state budget. John mentioned that $2 billion budget surplus. There's still almost weekly news that someone's kicking that can around in the capital. Maybe it ends up in our school district with a little bit of extra funding for next year. We'll wrap up this budget year and we're probably with within a month that Pete and I will start to build next year's budget.

115>> Questions on any of that? >> Corby, did you have something? I think I heard a >> yeah more more of a comment regarding title one that that really it upsets me discussing title one all the time just because there's an emphasis there's always an emphasis and rightfully so there's an emphasis on lunch the lunch component of it right which is vital and very important but title one also um is used to fund uh staff resources um what else mentors tutors, things of that nature that children that our children need need in order to be successful as well. And it it's just disgust me what has happened to Title One um under this new administration. I just wanted to voice that. >> Thank you, Corby. I just wanted to um share my appreciation for the

116amount of time and effort again to bring us the detailed budget and recommendations. you guys doing a ton of work and I'm not a numbers guy. I take that back. Uh regardless, great job. Thank you. >> I just want to reiterate because some of this becomes really familiar to us and I know I hear kind of key words you're saying, but I do want to reiterate the staffing reduction piece that we are not losing staff. We are not letting staff go. This is through the retirement attrition folks opting to leave and how we play with what FTE remains that we are not laying off educators. >> That is correct. We have historically not been a layoff school district. I I I think if you have seen what has happened in other districts around the state

117that have flopped operating referendums, even districts with stable or slightly declining enrollment, um those are incredibly ugly conversations and really emotional. I'm thankful again that we're going to be able to put a budget in front of the school board that we aren't even thinking about the idea of a layoff. Um and I um Dr. C and I have had this conversation often. Um we we'd like to in our careers never have to go down that road um and continue to try to find a way to find the money uh to rightly so compensating staff members serving our students >> which then comes to the piece I know we're taking an official vote on this but in terms of the gap solution slide that's um in front of me at least right now the annual step

118freeze I think we've talked a bit about you know just philosophically what that means I'm going to vote in favor of giving our staff their step increase I think there's a multitude of financial ramifications and even just culture in terms of how we recognize our educators dedication to your service in the district. Um so seeing all the levers is super helpful and I think this becomes part of the um pragmatic, financial, logical and kind of philosophical way that any one of us as board members want to approach the information that you've shared. Um but I appreciate that being out here for transparency and I will be voting a certain way and we'll do that shortly. >> Absolutely. That's the board votes tonight which is good. >> So I had a quick question about the student

119FT students. Yep. So the base numbers I heard are just conservative numbers not based on what we're expecting because you had said we're expecting to see pretty big open kindergarten numbers. >> So that's that's two separate numbers. >> Two separate numbers. >> So um and the number built into our fiveyear projection and those budget assumptions would be resident headcount. uh Pete has open enrollment in and out buried into a different portion of that 5-year projection. Uh but uh essentially uh if we if we don't start getting bigger kindergarten classes and continue to graduate 480 students every year um we're a declining enrollment school district. So, it either takes um resident moveins grades 1 through 11 for next year or 1 through 12 or bigger kindergarten classes. Um we we have some signs that the kindergarten

120class is going to be larger than we projected based on 4K enrollment, which is good news. Um, so we were happy to see um it looks like our kindergarten enrollment is already surpassed right now what we guessed it was going to be in the fall, which is good news for everybody involved. >> So this number is a net number then >> the minus 100, >> right? >> Number only for resident students, right? Yes. >> Any other questions? All good. Okay. All right. >> Thanks for entering politely and detailed. >> Yeah. Thank you and staying available to ensure that I do get proper verbiage for all the votes that we have. I've taken some notes. Thank you for all of that. Um we will officially move into public comment next. Just making sure that we do

121follow our agenda and Lori confirming we are free of public comment this evening as far as I know. All right. So we'll move into our board action votes. Um, so first we saw the proposal for budget transfer. I'm going to say recommendations, right? That's actually plural. There are two. The main being the $5.7 million kind of hold of funds toward um debt prepayment until July. And then the other is kind of the line item pieces. So just clarifying to board members that those are going to be lumped together into one vote. Um, so I would accept a motion to approve the budget transfer recommendations that were proposed to us this evening. >> So move. >> Second, Corby. Yeah, there you go. Second to Corby. Motion by Joe, second by Corby. Any further discussion? All those

122in favor of approving the budget transfer recommendations that were proposed this evening signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. The budget transfers have been approved. Um, now taking a vote on the step compensation recommendation. So that is the now vote to give staff compensation for a a year of service, a step increase um, separate from anything else we might be talking about later for additional compensation. Is there a motion to approve the step compensation um, increase for staff? >> Thank you, Christopher. I will second go to ahead. I know I don't always get myself in there, but I'm going to second that one. >> Thank you. >> Any further discussion? >> All those in favor of approving the staff compensation recommendation for staff for 2627 signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed?

123Okay. Motion has been approved. Um the Dacttronics forward. So, as a reminder, Chad mentioned in consent there's the full memo that details all of the pieces. Um, so I'm going to phrase this as a vote to approve the purchase of the Dacttronic Scoreboard with the 0% loan from Lakeidge Bank. Is there a motion? >> Thank you, Juan. Carlos, is there a second? Second. >> Thank you, Meredith. I was hoping you'd second that one. Um, any further discussion? >> All those in favor of approving the purchase of the Dacttronic scoreboard with the 0% loan from Lake Bridge Bank, signify with I. >> I. I. Any opposed? Okay, the purchase has been approved and then the school roof recommendation proposal for Badger and Core. Is there a vote to approve the school roof recommendation proposed this evening?

124>> Moved. >> Thank you, John. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Joe. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the roof proposal for Badger Ridge Corn signify with I. >> I. I >> I >> Any opposed? All right, the motion's been approved. One more on our board action OE12. Um and if you don't mind, I'd like to just elevate again for the community. There's a um video that you two put together in advance that is available through board docs. Thank you so much for that. The full monitoring report and the barrage of evidence that backs up and shows the full transparency that we talk about so much at this board table. So, thank you in advance for your work and then for also being here tonight. >> Absolutely. Dr. C

125did predict and rightly so that we thought by the time we got here uh we'd be approaching the two-hour mark at this board meeting. Uh so, I think we're hopefully all thankful that John and I did go through and do a video. John was so excited when I broke this news to him last week. We're going to get to record a video uh talking about facilities. He did an amazing job. Uh again, I I um I just want to commend and thank our amazing team, John, uh our building custodians, our maintenance team, uh for all the work that they do. Um it it is a point of pride, uh in the school district, but our facilities look like. I think it shows how much we care about our kids. Uh and um John just does

126an amazing job leading that team and keeping track of really that complicated work. uh we have you know over a billion dollars in assets uh John and his team are are responsible for maintaining on an annual basis. Uh again wanted to thank the board for the fact that this policy even exists. Uh that uh it does happen in school districts believe it or not uh that budget crisis, staffing crisis, math curriculum crisis of the day. This work can hit the back burner and you can forget about it for three or four or five years that you don't have a long range facilities plan that you're not adequately budgeting for maintaining the facilities you got. uh and you put it away until it becomes a big loud noisy issue and then you go to a capital

127referendum to maintain the stuff that you let kind of go uh you know go out to pasture for a lack of a better term until uh until you finally found money to do it and that's the opposite of the way we're approaching the work and that John's team's approaching the work. A couple of other comments then I'll turn it over to John to kind of get his thoughts and then open up to the board for questions. I want to highlight the fact that um a lot of the work that John's been doing over the last couple of years have had a energy saving component. Um the windows, the roof, we will likely bring back a solar uh project for all of you. Uh John did new controls and HVAC at Savannah. Uh all with the

128idea that we would rather hand a little less money to the utility company every year uh and have a little more options in terms of how we staff uh and support our classrooms. um wanted to highlight the fact that uh we have uh feedback embedded throughout this entire policy. Um some of which John specifically has asked for uh in the form of staff, student and community survey feedback. Um Dr. Carco who helps our uh our staff with the work related to the student group has continued to highlight the fact that she has never seen numbers regarding community feedback for what the community thinks of our facilities. um which is again a credit to the fact that we're taking care of this every night. Uh and uh we've got a long range facilities plan to make

129sure that this is not just uh you know mopped floors every night. This is a long range plan to maintain the stuff that we Mr. Bremer other things to say in the world of OE12 or highlights uh in your work before we take some questions from the board regarding this policy. >> Uh appreciate the praise. Um, I'll accept it for all that do this every day. It is it's not me. It's 60ish others that are here now that'll show up at 6 a.m. tomorrow >> uh that have been doing this work. Uh, in some cases our staff, they've been here three decades. Um, so yes, the ratings, we're appreciative of that feedback. Um, it's a tradition. the ratings have been high as long as I've had the privilege of being here working here, not just

130as a director, but as a teacher as well. Um, I want to highlight, I did this in the video as well, but I want to put this into the space that none of this is possible without a community that supports the way that our community does. Um, it's not possible without a board that is forward thinking as well. Um, and I think it's just a it's a reciprocal thing. uh the community trusts us to do our due diligence and making sure that we're maintaining our uh spaces uh that we are looking for efficiency. Um and then return we deliver and in return they trust and we just have this this cycle um that continues that is a win-win for everybody. I think you did a great job highlighting other things. Um, I want to let

131into the space the willingness of our custodians and maintenance staff that will take on projects that maybe aren't necessarily what they would do. Uh, specifically our LED projects. Um, we've converted all of our gym spaces into LED that weren't already. The work was done in house. Um, the payback on that is like almost immediate. I mean, it's not quite immediate, but it's less than a year. Um, with the rebates that we're able to take advantage of, um, between the roof and that lighting project, I think we're in the neighborhood of 50 probably $55,000 in rebates uh, that we've been able to achieve through that work. And that that work's going to continue with starting to change our classrooms to all LED, which is really inexpensive. Again, credit to those that are willing to learn and

132so that we can do that in house. I think we're ready for questions if you guys have any. >> Which again, I appreciate that we don't spend valuable board time getting presented to and that's not the role of you being here. We get to preview and digest and then engage in conversation which I think is more impactful. And thank you for taking notes, Christopher. Just to quick jump off of what you shared, John, you know, as we just came off of a vote to recognize at least compensation for staff to recognize a year of service. As we hold all things financial, you elevating the work that our custodial staff and your team does every day. How can we extend our gratitude not just by words, but to do what we can to compensate staff for

133the time that they're doing things above and beyond a job description? Um, I think you just hit that again as the importance of that work of doing the best we can to support our staff >> literally every day. >> We did we did Dairy Land here last weekend. This place was a zoo the whole weekend >> and a jazz concert. And I mean, we're all >> This place is busy 70s >> for sure. >> Yeah. And the decades of institutional knowledge as you highlighted too with some of our >> custodial staff in particular. I just want to say thank you for again. I love the videos. I think that's super important. I think it's really nice for the community to have access to this type of information. These are assets that are community paid for,

134community owned and here we're showing that um that transparency um and the respect to the community for doing all the work that they do to support us. Um so I know that's a huge lift though on your ending. So to put all of this, there's 83 pages of evidence. 83 pages. >> And when we have this type of information that like underlies all of our the board's understanding, the community's understanding, when things come in like the group or something fun like the um the scoreboard, we have the the foundation um of information that is just really valuable. So, thank you for putting the time into compiling all this, but thank you for all the work that you do that is printed through all of this uh data. So, it's it's hugely important and just greatly

135appreciated and I would encourage any of our community members to please take the time to look through our monitoring reports, our videos because that that information is really just invaluable. um demonstration of of the work that you all do. >> So, thank you. >> Just quick lift up of the systems and structures too that are embedded in here. I mean, the tracker, the way that people submit requests, I mean, it all seems probably quite invisible really, but that is incredibly impactful in terms of just being able to really track what happens to feel like there's reciprocal acknowledgement of I have a concern, I have an issue with something maintenance-wise, and that it's all just it's all here, which is amazing. Um, so, thank you for all that time. >> I mean, that's the idea. I

136mean, you know, why we're here. um supporting students, the success of students um being able to enjoy a celebration a few weeks from now um as they walk across the stage. So the more of that stuff can be seamless so that the focus on the main thing is focus on the main thing. That's the goal. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. I mean, I can say it every time I walk through the halls. I'm proud of just how romantic teams are. It's really proud. Just shows the standard of excellence that we have across our >> Glacier does not feel like a 20-y old building. >> And I also thought there was a fun piece in the video that you spoke to about working with students to take agency >> doing their part. >> Yeah. cleaning up

137after themselves, which I think is a great educational component. We can all we can all chip in >> through K to 12 to do our part to maintain the pride of where we spend our time. >> Yeah. I I chuckle a little bit at the the kind of the irony embedded in uh what students think of the condition of their bathrooms during the day. >> Who's in them? >> They're your bathrooms. >> Correct. Yes, >> that's it. Continues to be a work in progress. But yes, >> thank you. Yeah, >> quick break from writing notes. But um no um I think when we first um arrived here, my students came home and talked about there was a there was a a messy bathroom in incident, but students rose to the occasion to show appreciation to

138the custodial staff because they didn't want the custodial staff to feel like they were um not appreciated. And that happened at Center Prairie when we first arrived here and I thought that wow that's amazing like the student body also sees that. I'm not sure we were that aware when I was in school of that level but um it just shows the culture and appreciation that even our students carry even at that level. So yeah, >> thanks for the report. And to Merida's point, please community take a look. >> Um board, as a reminder, we are charged because of uh being an OE as to whether or not we feel this report meets our expectations. >> I'll move that it meets our expectations. >> Thank you, Joe. Is there a second? Thank you, John. Any further

139discussion? All those in favor of approving OE12 facilities as meeting expectations signify with I. I. >> I. >> Thanks Corby. Any opposed? >> All right. Thank you, John. Thank you for being here as well, the video. Thank you to your partner as well for the support um and just all of your team. Please extend our gratitude um as a board. Thank you. Appreciate this time to be able to honor the work that you do as well. >> Thanks everybody. anyone can vote but first unless it's great on the advisory project she shows on superintendent advisory >> but there's not a lot of like joial things that happen on central office but those moments before Mr. Mr. Burmer is getting ready to go on a video of my entertaining. >> Like I said, he was very

140excited. >> Actually, I had a meeting. I just wanted to stay around a little bit longer because I was just watching this whole thing play on. It was the most entertaining thing I had. >> That is fantastic. >> That was awesome. All right, we are moving down then to board updates. >> I had a I had a quick >> we do public comment. >> Yes. >> Okay, >> but thank you for checking. We had none, but we did acknowledge and hold space for that. Thank you. >> Yeah, Corby. >> Yeah, I do have a quick uh general update. Um last Wednesday uh we took the the brothers of IYT um uh that's improved your tomorrow to uh Madison College for their first college tour. And as I stated before um we went, this was an

141opportunity for for some young scholars who have never stepped foot on a college campus before to be exposed to college um to to really see the inner workings of what a what a community college looks like. And uh there we were greeted by Dr. Jennifer Burn, the president of the college. They had a full panel of uh of uh administration, the board uh there to speak with with our young scholars. Uh mentors were there, tutors and uh at the end we ended with a ropes course and uh it taught uh brother unity. It was it was uh really impactful. But uh real quick, the high the biggest highlight, there is a creed, a ritual before we get started with any type of workshop that the brothers uh say. And there's one one brother that leads

142uh that that creed, that saying. And when we were at Madison College, uh we were trying to pull up that creed on our telephone so that the brothers could read it and say it before the day got started. They they looked at us and said, "Why are you looking for it? We know it. 45 young men. It was a mix of Verona and Madison uh Metro School District. All stood up and in Udescent said the creed before the day even got started. It was so emotional. It was so powerful. And it also sent the message that not only are they retaining, but they're believing. And it was just a wonderful day. I I I'm still every day I've been thinking about it since since uh taking them and I can't wait for the next college

143tour. >> So great, Corby. Thank you for giving the update about how that went. That's fabulous. >> I'll reluctantly add um I'm incredibly honored to be recognized by Gig for being the activist of the year. Um I don't like to toot my own horn especially doing equity work I said about me or finding accolades but rather the impact you have in community and um was shocked by the acknowledgement. So if you would like to attend the event this is to support GFE as an organization helping our LGBTQ students and communities in safe schools across the state. Uh that um will be at Terrace on May 30th. you get to hear me speak from my words, but um I appreciate that acknowledgement. >> Congratulations. >> Great. Thank you for lifting that up at the table. >>

144Any other updates? >> One other one. >> Yeah. this uh Saturday >> will be we mentioned I think there was a email that went out there will be the always there fair happening at Badger Ridge um middle school uh starting at 9:00 and going in through the afternoon. The morning session from 9 until noon will be a resource fair. Again, this is to support um our LGBTQ students, families, and allies across the county. We're focusing here with our local GSA. Um, and then the afternoon will be a fundraiser Zoom lethon. So, if you want to get uh some exercise in and help support a great cause, that'll be this coming Saturday. >> Thank you. I did put the invite officially in all of your email inboxes. So, thank you. >> Thanks. >> Um, one reminder,

145thank you all for endofear um visit signups. So, appreciate all of your time. Um, Lori, there's been a couple of updates as well. Um, just to acknowledge the sites, the first one is already this week um on Friday. So, thanks to John and or Carlos for attending. Um, we do what we can to land where we can. So, I hope no site feels like one is more valuable or another based on how we can attend. It's just truly a scheduling piece. So, thank you. Looking forward to those. All right. Then, moving on to superintendent consent agenda. So, you can see there's a lot of subnotes there of all the things included. um some just given the time of year with renewals and teacher contracts and making sure you've looked at all of the attachments. Um

146any questions? Okay, hearing none, the superintendent's consent agenda is approved and then board consent agenda. Um we have our minutes. Thank you again last week Christopher, Joe and John for notetaking. So all of the summary notes from all of our monitoring, thank you all for your time on those. Any questions? Okay, hearing none, the board consent agenda is approved. Um, and then future dates, nothing too glaring other than wow, graduation is going to be tomorrow, isn't it? Okay. >> And we have our garb here, board members. So, it makes it even more real. >> So exciting. >> Came up with um your apparel. Stephanie asked if you would try them on as soon as possible because if there's any um changes needed to do that. Okay. >> I'm going to wear it till the board

147meetings. >> There we go. Just to break it in a little bit. Cory, did you hear that? Make sure you try on when we are able to get you your your garb. Make sure everything fits. Thank you for that. Lori, >> is this like a a permanent garb or is it just like a rental? It will live as >> long as you're a board. >> Yeah, it will. It's owned by the district. >> So, we return it for safekeeping. Yes. >> Yes. >> We're always return for safekeeping. >> Yes. Right. I mean, no. >> All right. Board members and team. With all of that, I will accept a motion to adjourn. >> Thank you, Meredith. Is there a second? Sean, >> all those thank you for me for your virtual attendance. All those in favor

148of adjourning tonight's meeting signify with I. >> Any opposed? >> Take that dog for a walk. >> Thanks everyone. I mean, >> good night.